3 NBA DraftKings Value Plays to Target on 11/17/17

Rodney Hood, SG/SF, Utah Jazz

DraftKings Salary: $5,400

Rodney Hood had the chance to take a step forward with Gordon Hayward in Boston this season, but Hood had a slow start to the year and was eventually benched for rookie Donovan Mitchell. Hood has responded well, though, scoring at least 16 points and 24 DraftKings points in each of his past five games. His DraftKings average sits at 30 points during that span, yet he is priced at a point which requires just 27 of him.

With the Utah Jazz playing without both Rudy Gobert and Ricky Rubio tonight, someone is going to have to step up. Mitchell and Hood are the most logical candidates, and their opportunity couldn't have come at a much better time, as they face the Brooklyn Nets. Brooklyn combines the league's fastest pace with the 24th-ranked defensive efficiency to create possibly the most fantasy friendly environment of any team.

There really isn't a large enough sample size of court time with both Gobert and Rubio off the floor to draw conclusions from, but we can examine how Utah has played with each individual off the court.

While Derrick Favors would be the obvious choice to see the largest boost without Gobert, it has actually been Hood, who has seen his usage rate spike to 36.4% in 149 minutes without Gobert, along with a team-leading 0.29 DraftKings point per minute increase. His numbers haven't been impacted as drastically by the absence of Rubio, but he has still posted a 31.1% usage and seen a 0.06 DraftKings point per minute bump.

Hood's game has a lot of variance to it, so he is normally a tough player to trust in cash. However, with such a large role in a terrific spot, it is tough to eliminate him from cash consideration.